


Banded Hearts

by a_shiny_mess (magpie4shinies)



Category: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (Movies)
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Gen, if that was unclear, the soulmate element is the divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:47:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28141116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magpie4shinies/pseuds/a_shiny_mess
Summary: Bethany's band was inert before detention and then she was dragged into a weird game console and eaten by a hippo, so she wasn't going to beat herself up for failing to notice right away.
Relationships: Alex Vreeke & Bethany Walker, Alex Vreeke/Bethany Walker, Martha Kaply & Bethany Walker
Comments: 12
Kudos: 50
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Banded Hearts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DreamsofRomance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamsofRomance/gifts).



They’d saved the world. Well, a virtual world. But they still nearly died! And they still had to finish detention. 

It was dumb, but whatever, Bethany could deal with it. She’d spent the last day or two...or maybe more (they’d travelled too far on foot for it to only be one day, but it had only gotten dark toward the end...) so far outside of her comfort zone and with such wildly different priorities than normal that she could call a couple of hours pulling staples out of magazines a meditation and write it off if it got them out of school sooner.

It was probably for the best, even. Despite not having any issues adapting to being a tall, overweight dude in the game, Bethany kept accidentally overextending when she walked, assuming a larger stride. Fridge seemed to have the same issue in reverse, and he’d brained a low shelf that Mouse would have cleared in the game. Spencer and Martha weren’t too bad, but Spencer kept touching his hair.

They probably needed to settle back into their bodies. It was a good thing that the principal had redirected them back to the basement when they’d tried to leave. 

_Where’s Alex?_

Bethany just...had to focus. Not think. (Not worry.) She tried to let in the light as she forced the metal teeth of the staple remover into the binding of an old National Geographic but found her attention wandering to her wrist. The speckled green band looked the same as it ever did, tracing her wrist in a regular thickness and dotted with paler green or flecks of brown in the cute shell pattern that had been with her since birth. Even so, her wrist felt a little odd. Not cold, but almost too warm. Buzzing? It was a weird feeling.

Thankfully (even if it was weird), the scent of old paper and mildew was grounding, since Jumanji hadn’t really smelled like anything for the most part, even though she was only really processing that as odd in hindsight.

_Jesus fuck, what the hell had happened to them? How could something like that exist?_

The air in the basement was warm, as close to the boiler as they were, which was good. Bethany’s stomach was upset and her gut was radiating a chill like she was sick or hungover even after she’d put her shirt back on. At least it hid her wrist, even though she found her attention drifting down to it as she worked.

It was just one more thing for Bethany to try not to think about. Along with -- 

_Twenty years. What if he wasn’t there? What if WAS there and he was alone and scared in a world he didn't recognize?_

_No. Stop._ Panicking wasn't helping anyone. She tried to swallow around the thickness in her throat and breathe through it. Let in the light. Be one with the world. Remove another staple so they could **get out of here.**

“Hey, uh...we’re almost done.”

Bethany jumped, hurling the magazine she was holding out and narrowly missing Fridge’s face when Fridge jumped back and held up his hands. “Holy - Fridge! Don’t sneak up on me like that, ok? I just had like, _fifty_ near death experiences."

“Whoa, whoa, can we...uh, not?” Fridge glanced over at the console they’d all unanimously decided to stay the hell away from and then back to Bethany. When he saw she was no longer brandishing the staple removal tool as a weapon, he lowered his hands, his shimmery copper band bright even under the terrible lighting. His eyes a little wide but his lips turned up in a faint grin. “Damn, girl.”

Rolling her eyes, Bethany processed what he’d said and looked back at the bin. Between the four of them, they’d managed to work through what had looked like an actual mountain of magazines this morning, even with Martha and Spencer being adorable Blanks and sneaking looks at each other, eyes seeming to dart from the other’s face to their unmarked, uncovered right wrists. 

Or at least, they had been. Closer to the bin, they’d stopped working on their piles at Bethany’s eruption and she forced a smile and shrugged. 

Frankly, she’d been eaten by a hippo and a really sweet boy who hadn’t deserved being eaten by a videogame might’ve been left behind, and they could have left **three hours ago** if the principal hadn’t been sitting right outside the door --

And where the hell did he get off, putting them into a room with that...thing? If she could figure out a way to prove damages, she would seriously think about suing.

_No. Stop. Breathe._ This was good. In a couple of hours of concentrated effort, they’d reduced the impossible task to empty carts and a messy stack of disintegrating paper on the table. That meant that they should be able to leave soon, right?

“So, uh…” Spencer cleared his throat, hand drifting toward his pocket before he paused, then set it on the table and took a breath. Slowly. “Sorry. But what are you guys...doing after this?”

_w h a t_

“Huh?” Fridge resumed stapling. "I kind of just want to go home and hug my mom and maybe have some normal damn toast. I didn’t eat anything while we were in that game besides that cake and those margaritas took a lot out of me, for happening in a different body…”

Spencer coughed, eyes falling and then shifting to Bethany before landing on Martha. “I was just -- I was thinking we could go to the Vreeke place.”

The windstorm of static in Bethany’s head went silent.

_Thank god._ Bethany took a breath, having just assumed that the others would have thought to go check on Alex immediately as well, and her heart had absolutely hammered in panic at the idea of finding answers alone. It was slow to lower its pace but she was used to controlling her breathing.

Her tone was bright when she replied. “That is a GREAT idea, Spencer! I am definitely in.” She narrowed her eyes, tightened her ponytail, and bent her focus back to the short stack of magazines in front of her. 

Martha hadn’t quite stopped working even while distracted by Spencer, but Bethany’s refocused efforts called her attention and stilled her hands. “Whoa. Me too? But that was a little. Um.”

Bethany flushed, dropping the magazine in her hands. “Oh, uh, the air in here is really -- “

“It’s OK.” 

Bethany stopped fumbling, cheeks still hot, and chanced a look. Martha was smiling, not a lot, and not...not mean. Her lips were curling gently, softening the thin line of her mouth and adding a kind tilt to her eyes as they crinkled. She shifted a little, expression dropping for one of concern as her eyes fell to the pile between them. “It’s -- you know. We all want to know.”

Bethany felt the faint self consciousness fade and found herself returning Martha’s smile and wishing the girl would look back up briefly. She really was a hottie when she stopped looking at the floor. “Thanks.”

Martha’s cheeks reddened and she grabbed a magazine. “Whatever.”

Bethany grinned. “You’re a good friend, Martha.”

The color staining Martha’s cheeks darkened. “Yeah?”

“Absolutely.” Bethany hummed. 

“Aww, aren’t they cute,” Fridge said to Spencer, not doing a damn thing to minimize his tone or volume. “Where you at, man? If we’re hitting the Vreeke place today, we better finish like...now. Mom wanted me home by five or she was calling the principal.”

Oh, Bethany had heard about that. They were putting Fridge on academic probation and he would be benched until midterms, but they weren’t cutting him from the team. But of course, his mom had grounded him too...

So they had until five. Bethany checked her phone and scowled at the pile of paper currently keeping principal Bentley between her and the door.

The promise of action was finally enough to pull her attention from the faint buzz under her skin.

~

Hitting the bathroom after being released from hours in purgatory was not an option, it was a biological need.

Unfortunately.

“Wait, really?” Spencer blinked, hands on his locker. He didn’t sound anything but surprised, but Bethany arched a brow and he flushed, looking away.

“I...have to go too, actually,” Martha mumbled, smiling tentatively at Bethany. “Your locker’s by the gym, right, Fridge? Why don’t you get your stuff while we hit the bathroom by Mr. Hendricks’ class.” She chanced a smile at Spencer and down to where his sleeve bared his wrist and continued. “We could meet at the main doors in ten minutes?”

Spencer was already nodding. “Yeah, that sounds good. Like a plan, I mean! A good plan. Let’s do that.”

Fridge put a hand in Spencer’s collar and started tugging him down the hall trailing his coat in one hand and backpack in the other. “Come on, man, before you undo whatever Bravestone magic you managed to lay down…”

Bethany was a total gem and closed Spencer’s locker for him, because she was just amazing like that. She was feeling a little better with the answers in sight. 

“I really do wonder why Alex didn’t show up with us,” Martha muttered as they walked briskly through the empty halls of the school.

Bethany’s lips thinned as the worry she’d beaten back surged. Why **hadn’t** Alex showed up with them? Was it because he’d disappeared from his house? Was it because he’d gone in so long ( _twenty years, oh god, **twenty years**_ ) ago? 

What would his father do, when confronted with the son he’d lost twenty years ago?

God, Bethany’s heart hurt for the man in a way it never had before when she’d run into him at the gas station on Heights and Shenandoah. Alex was such a sweet guy: she couldn’t imagine what Mr. Vreeke had gone through after he'd disappeared, but it had to have been a lot, considering the overall rotten state of his property. First his son, then his wife, and with no clues that could possibly be traced...god, no wonder he’d seemed unhinged whenever he talked to anyone.

The cubicles of the ladies room were as dour as always, the stone walls separated into three partitions by light tan metal sheets. It was kind of a terrible place to have any sort of emotional epiphany, so Bethany forced herself to take a breath, two wads of toilet paper, and collected herself.

While the toilet flushed behind her, she unlocked and pushed the door open and moved straight to a sink, badly ignoring Martha at the one to the right, and began washing her hands for what was probably too long. She could see Martha building up to ask something and realized she didn’t want to hear the question, whatever it was. 

Bethany was feeling like if they could just move forward without acknowledging how absolutely fucked Alex MIGHT be, then everything would be OK and she didn’t want to jinx it after the day they’d already had.

“What -- " Whoa, her voice shouldn’t sound like that. Clearing her throat, Bethany tried again. “Sorry. I just wanted to ask -- what’s that like?” She deliberately looked down at Martha’s wrist, blank as it was, and then back up. “I saw you and Spencer being cute at each other.”

Martha went red and smiled, definitely distracted from whatever she’d been thinking of to put a little wrinkle in her brow. “You saw that, huh?”

Bethany laughed, feeling herself settle a little more with something to focus on. “I have eyes, right? He was totally eyeing you. I mean, he’s had it bad for a while, but like -- he totally wants to ask you out, like seriously. He was triple checking your band was blank and everything.”

Martha’s hands stuttered under the flow of the water, her left hand falling to her blank wrist. Her face flooded red, worse than it had originally, and the color reached all the way up to her ears. “You -- _really?_ ”

“Mmhm,” Bethany hummed. “I’m glad you’re blank, for his sake. I don’t know if he’d ever recover.”

“I never really thought of it before, but I’m...kind of glad, too,” Martha mumbled, thumb drifting over her bare skin. Then she glanced over at Bethany, who was scrubbing high on her own arm to try and work out the buzz she was still feeling under her skin. Maybe it was an allergy to magic bullshit she wasn’t aware of?

“What about you?”

“Hm?” Bethany automatically looked down at her band. The comforting ring of color had shaped itself around her wrist for years, waiting for the name of her soulmate to Hollow over her pulse upon meeting. It was comforting to follow it with a finger from the top of her wrist over. “Oh, it’s sort of -- oh my god!”

~

Fridge and Spencer were waiting when Bethany and Martha bolted out of the doors. They looked like they’d been in conversation but it broke off when Bethany hit the pavement and kept going. 

“Whoa -- OK? We’re going!” Fridge said, striding to catch up. Spencer had it a little harder being shorter, but had an easier time matching Bethany’s pace than Martha, who was practically jogging. 

“What’s up?” Spencer asked, looking between the girls before focusing on Martha.

“Oh, uh...Bethany just...really needs to check on Alex,” Martha huffed, meeting Spencer’s eyes briefly before she picked up her own pace.

“O...K…” Spencer said, falling behind slightly before matching the group.

“My band Hollowed,” Bethany said blankly, turning into the park that would bring them to the Taylor house. They didn’t have a fence or a dog, so cutting through this way saved a little time.

Spencer sounded no less confused. “Oh.” 

“OK…” Fridge muttered. “Wait, like. Today? This morning before detention, and you didn’t _notice_?”

“Nope,” Bethany replied, feeling the pop of the p when she pushed it. “Not since this **morning**.”

“The...principal?” Fridge tried, voice edging up. 

Bethany shook her head.

“Oh, thank god,” Fridge muttered. Martha glared at him, drawing a faint smile to Bethany’s mouth. “Look, sorry, I know age gaps are a thing sometimes, but he’s Principal Bentley, you know? That’s all.”

Martha rolled her eyes and returned her attention back to Bethany, moving close enough to brush elbows.

For a couple of minutes, the only sound was the crunch of gravel under their feet and the faint sound of a car off of the main cross street.

Then, Spencer hummed thoughtfully. “Wait, but if it wasn’t Bentley, then…No! Wait, really?”

“Stop that,” Fridge said, frowning. “Seriously, who could it have been, everyone else we met was a videogame...character…”

“Not everyone,” Martha murmured.

“Yeah.” Bethany glanced over her shoulder and met Fridge’s wide eyes before turning to Spencer. “My band was inert before detention and now it’s not.” 

Spencer pushed ahead and then turned around so he could walk backwards. “That’s...not possible, right? But what does that… _how_?” 

Bethany didn’t blame him for being confused. Even setting aside the weird _what-the-fuckery_ that was their recent adventure into Jumanji, only a quarter of the population were born with soulbands and Spencer wasn’t one of them. She’d bet his parents had been blank as well. She held up her arm, wrist high enough to be visible where her sleeve slipped. “James Alexander Vreeke.”

“...oh, my god.”

“Right?!” 

Bethany found herself wrapping her arms around her waist, wrists pressing into her belly. It didn’t do anything to help the ongoing buzz under her skin, but it made her feel a little better. Well, that and the gentle pressure of Martha’s arm brushing hers. 

God, Freak House. How many times had she been by it for some reason or another? Not so many, her family lived on the other side of the school, but the memories loomed large in her mind. The place had been awful, overgrown and falling apart. Had Alex woken up there?

“Wait, look.” Spencer said, drawing Bethany’s attention up from the pavement. 

_Whoa._ The house was different, that was for sure. The paint seemed fresh, the siding clean and secure -- she could actually see all of the house, holy shit. The yard looked great. 

“ _Freak House?_ ” Fridge stared as they all came to a stop.

_Property values probably skyrocketed,_ Bethany thought inanely, and then pushed aside the question of temporal impact on the real estate market. 

Spencer shifted, looking from the wildly different house to Bethany and then back. “Do you think…?”

Bethany pressed her lips together, bit into her lower lip and let it go almost as quickly. The buzz under her skin seemed to be growing. “Maybe…”

A grey sedan pulled up. It was a Hyundai, maybe a few years old, with 4 doors. It stopped in front of Freak House (Alex’s house). It looked like a man was driving. 

Bethany felt like she was processing everything in flashes, 6 seconds of time disconnected from everything else. 

The rear passenger door opened first, a kid tumbling out almost as soon as the car had stopped and running for the house.

An older man, gray hair neatly cut evenly along the top, exited the house and jogged down the stairs quickly, intercepting the kid with a swooping hug and a laugh Bethany could hear from where she was standing, but it was muffled as she watched a man exit the car. 

_Alex._ There was no way that she could have known it was him, but she still knew.

He was tall, taller than either of them had been in the game, and looked like he had a swimmer’s build, though she couldn’t tell the specifics from the layers of his clothes. Dark jeans and a long sleeved light gray undershirt, with a faded black Metallica shirt over it. His hair was dark, black from what she could tell from this distance, but maybe a little lighter at the temples? 

He pulled a jacket out of the car and said something to someone still in it, then leaned back to pull the black padded coat on and shut the door. 

When he turned to walk around the front of the car, he saw the group and curiosity flickered over his features before his eyes met Bethany’s and it felt like the magnets buzzing under her skin were turbo charged. 

He went briefly still, then twitched and glanced over his shoulder. “Just -- just a second, Lisa!”

Bethany’s hungry eyes finally moved past him, catching on a woman with dark brown hair pulled into a high pony lingering near the car who only started to drift off after Alex spoke. 

Bethany swallowed, her mind swirling with questions she didn’t quite know how to ask. 

Alex turned back to the group. “My, uh. My cousin.” He met Bethany’s eyes again and smiled, slow but certain, like he might feel the world realigning too. 

Bethany was helpless to stop her own smile from breaking, so wide the cold sank into her teeth and her cheeks felt the flex.

Alex bit his lip but then he glanced over the whole group and Bethany watched his expression shift. It was still friendly, still...open, but it seemed a little less...personal as he looked the group over. “Spencer, and...Ruby Roundhouse? So that makes you...Fridge.”

Martha shifted beside Bethany, bumping shoulders in support as Bethany took a breath and braced herself as Alex finished closing the distance between them. “Bethany Alice Walker.”

“Alex.” Bethany reached up, reached out, hesitated, and then took a half step closer. “James Alexander Vreeke. You’re back. You made it back and you’re...an adult.”

“Oh, yeah, I...came back when I left, so. 1996. It was wild.” Alex smiled back and -- honestly, he wasn’t _hot_ , not Insta hot like Noah: his ears were a little big and his eyes were a little squinty but it wasn’t bad. He was handsome, and the undercut suited his face, which. His face was...somehow, it seemed immediately familiar in a way that settled into her chest and eased the lingering chill she’d been fighting for hours. 

“Should I apologize for making you wait?” Bethany asked, cocking her head.

The others were so quiet they might have been somewhere else. 

“Never,” Alex said immediately, laughing. “I mean, should I apologize for being twenty years older than you? I probably should, huh...sorry, I was just so stoked when I realized...”

Bethany grinned and reached out, turning her hand palm up as she did, far enough to bare the speckled green edge of her band, Hollowed with his name. “So what I’m hearing is...we have a lot to catch up on.”

“I’m...really looking forward to it.” Alex took her hand.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope that you enjoy this fill for your request, DreamsofRomance. I really appreciate the opportunity to write in this fandom! These two were actually so cute in the films and I was happy to craft my first soulmate AU for them.
> 
> In case anyone is wondering: the car at the end is a sedan, which is different than the movie, because Alex isn't married with two children. He does help his family out, though.


End file.
